USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > History of Augusta County, Virginia > Part 4
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Many reforms were introduced by Spotswood, and among his benevo- lent schemes was one for civilizing and christianizing the Indians. With this view he undertook his expedition to the interior in 1716, of which we shall anon speak more freely.
In 1723, Spotswood was succeeded by Sir Hugh Drysdale, and he, in 1727, by William Gooch, who, during his term, commanded the expedi- tion against Carthagena. This expedition was the most important event of Gooch's administration, as, taken in connection with the other colonies, it was another step in the development of union.
Gooch was a man of firmness and moderation, and ruled Virginia for twenty-two years much to the satisfaction of the people. During his time, wealth and population increased, printing was introduced, education be-
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camne diffused, and its improving effects were felt in all, particularly the upper classes. But the loose and licentious character of the clergy made the Established Church but a feeble bulwark against the tide of religious enthusiasm which swept in with Whitfield, and the old cry was raised against Dissenters by those who conformed from habit or worldly interest to the Established Church. Gooch attempted to suppress heterodox opin- ions by all the powers of the State, and there was much petty persecution, which left the Church weaker and more unpopular even than before. In April. 1745, in his charge to the Grand Jury of the General Court, he said of the Presbyterians and other religious sects, " that false teachers had lately crept into this government, who, without order or license, or pro- ducing any testimonial of their education or sect, professing themselves ministers under the pretended influence of new light, extraordinary im- pulse, and such like satirical and enthusiastic knowledge, lead the inno- cent and ignorant people into all kind of delusion." And he called upon the jury to present and indict the offenders.
While England was colonizing in Virginia, New England, and at other points on the Atlantic coast, and sending into the interior hardy pioneers, the descendants of her two earliest colonies, the French were making ex- plorations along the coast and into the backwoods. As far back as 1534, Jacques Cartier, at the head of a French expedition, entered the St. Law- rence and claimed the territory on both sides for France. In 1608, Quebec was founded by the French, and French immigrants arrived in succeeding years, until the dominion claimed by the French extended, as previously mentioned, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1673, the Upper Mississippi was discovered by Father Marquette, a monk of the reformed order of Franciscans, called Recollects. In 1679, the French sent a second expedition to the West under La Salle. It reached through the lakes the Chicago river, passed down the Illinois to where Peoria now stands, and there La Salle erected a fort called Crève Cœur, or broken heart, on account of the hopeless difficulties he encountered. In 1682, La Salle sailed down the Mississippi to the Gulf, and called the country Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV.
In 1700, the population of Virginia was 22,000, and in 1716 did not ex- ceed 30,000. It was principally seated on the rivers and streams of East- ern Virginia and the Atlantic coast. No county had been organized west of the 78° of longitude, nor were there any white settlements further west. The exploring party which discovered the Valley made its way from Ger- manna over a hundred miles through a trackless forest.
The progress of the population in the colony is indicated by the figures below : In 1607 it was 105; in 1609 it was 490; in 1617 it was 400; in 1622 it was 3,800; in 1628 it was 3,000; in 1632 it was 2,000; in 1644 it was
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
4,812; in 1645 it was 5,000; in 1652 it was 7,000, in 1700 it w.is 22,000 : in 1748 it was 82,000.
From these matters of colonial history, so briefly recapitulated, the reader will understand the causes of the subsequent conflict: between the French and English colonists, the progress of the colony of Virginia, and its actual condition in 1716, when the Valley was discovered. and be- came a few years later the seat of an English settle nost.
CHAPTER III.
The first passage of the Blue Ridge, or discovery of the Valley, was effected by Spotswood at the head of a troop of horse in August, 1716. The party consisted of about fifty persons, who had a large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and an extraor- dinary variety of liquors. The expedition proceeded from Williamsburg by Chelsea, King William county, to Beverly's in the county of Middlesex, where the Governor left h's chaise and continued on horseback to Germanna. There, on the 26th of August, he was joined by the rest of the party, a nong whom were four Meherrin Indians and two small companies of rangers. The party marched thence to Todd's, on Mountain Run then to the Rappahannock, which they crossed at Somerville's ford, thence by the left bank to near Peyton's ford, on the Rapidan. Here they turned south, recrossed the river and proceeded to where Stanardsville now stands ; thence through Swift Run gap to the Valley, crossing the Shenan- doah river at a point about ten miles north of the present town of Port Republic. The popular belief, down to Bishop Meade's time, that the party had reached the Valley by Rockfish gap is thus shown to have been a popular error.
In commemoration of this event Spotswood is said to have been knighted, and to have presented each of the party with a golden horse- shoe, on which was inscribed : "Sic jurat transcendere montes." (Thus he swears to cross the mountains.)
The glowing accounts given by Spotswood's party-or, as they were afterwards styled, the " Knights of the Golden Horseshoe " -- of the fertile and beautiful valley beyond the mountains, excited the spirit of enterprise and adventure in the people of Eastern Virginia and Pennsylvania. Though
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the approach to the upper country was difficult either from the North or East, from the want of roads and bridges, and the hills were infested with roving tribes of savages, each tribe asserting certain rights in and to the country, many plans were now considered by families and little commu- nities for changing their residence to these favored regions. The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, who encountered no Indians on their entry into the Valley, spread abroad reports that the mountains east and west, which enclosed this lovely and fruitful Valley, presented an almost insurmount- able obstacle to the entrance of savages, and that defenceless families might there live in security and plenty, enjoying not only the necessaries but the luxuries of life without labor and without price. They repre- sented the verdant plains as sparkling with streams filled with fish, and covered with herds browsing in quiet joy. The trees which fringed the banks were festooned with vines, and both vines and trees were bending under their weight of luscious fruit. It is not surprising that an adventu- rous population, many of whom had already given evidence of their spirit by severing the ties binding them to friends and native land, should be seized with a desire to occupy such a country. Accordingly, in 1732, six- teen families from Pennsylvania crossed the Potomac and settled near the present town of Winchester.
Among those whose attention was now directed to our Valley was John Lewis, who had been for some time in Pennsylvania, quietly awaiting the arrival from Europe of his wife and children. This remarkable man was born in the north of Ireland, descended from a French-Protestant family, and was educated in Scotland. In Ulster, where he resided until fifty years of age, he commanded the confidence, respect and esteem of the people, and occupied that position of influence, and took that leading part in society and county affairs, which had been traditionally the role of the O'Donnells, Chichesters and O'Doghertys. In youth he was of impetu- ous temper, but the varied experience of an active life had taught him to control his spirit. He was endowed with a high order of intellect, a valorous soul, and soon became noted for his virtuous principles. A deplo- rable affair, but one alike honorable to his spirit and manhood, terminated his career in Ireland. He had been some time in America, when, in 1732, Joist Hite and a party of pioneers set out to settle upon a grant of forty thousand acres of land in the Valley, which had been obtained, in 1730, by Isaac Vanmeter and his brother, by warrant from the Governor of Vir- ginia. Lewis joined this party, came to the Valley, and was the first white settler of Augusta.
The circumstances which led to the emigration of Lewis and his settle- ment of Augusta are detailed in the Virginia Historical Register for 1851, and in Howe's History. The accounts differ sufficiently to make both agreeable reading. The Register narrative, published some years after
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his death, was written by Hon. Jno. H. Peyton from information derived orally from Wm. I. Lewis, of Campbell, M. C. for that district from 1817 to 1819, and is as follows :
"Col. Lewis stated that the account given by the 'Son of Cornstalk,' in his essays, of the native country and the causes of the removal of his family to the Colony of Virginia, was incorrect. That the true history of the matter, as he had obtained it from his father, the late Col. William Lewis, of the Sweet Springs, who died in the year 1812, at the age of 85 years, and long after Col. Wm. I. Lewis had arrived at manhood, was this: John Lewis, his grandfather, was a native of Ireland, and was descended of French-Protestants, who emigrated from France to Ireland in 1685, at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, to avoid the persecutions to which the Protestants, to which sect of religion they belonged, were subjected during the reign of Louis XIV. John Lewis intermarried with Margaret Lynn, also a native of Ireland, but descended of Scottish ances- tors-the Lynns of Loch Lynn, so famous in Scottish clan legends. John Lewis, in Ireland, occupied a respectable position in what is there called the middle class of society. He was the holder of a free-hold lease for three lives upon a valuable farm in the County of Donegal and Province of Ulster, obtained upon equal terms and fair equivalents from one of the Irish nobility, who was an upright and honorable man, and the owner of the reversion. This lease-hold estate, with his wife's marriage portion, enabled the young couple to commence life with flattering prospects. They were both remarkable for their industry, piety and stern integrity. They prospered and were happy. Before the catastrophe occurred which completely destroyed the hopes of this once happy family in Ireland, and made them exiles from their native land, their affection was cemented by the birth of four sons, Samuel, Thomas, Andrew and William. About the period of the birth of their third son, the Lord from whom he had obtained his lease-a landlord beloved by his tenants and neighbors-suddenly died, and his estates descended to his eldest son, a youth whose principles were directly the reverse of his father's. He was proud, profligate and extravagant. Anticipating his income, he was always in debt, and to meet his numerous engagements he devised a variety of schemes, and among them one was to claim of his tenants a forfeiture of their leases upon some one of the numerous covenants inserted in instruments of the kind at that day. If they agreed to increase their rents, the alleged forfeiture was waived ; if they refused, they were threatened with a long, tedious and expensive law suit. Many of his tenants submitted to this 'njustice, and raised their rents rather than be involved, even with justice on their side, in a legal controversy with a rich and powerful adversary, who could, in this country, under these circumstances, devise ways and means to har- rass, persecute and impoverish one in moderate circumstances. Lewis, however, was a different man from any who thus tamely submitted to wrong. By industry and skill he had greatly improved his property, his rent had been punctually paid, and all the covenants of his lease had been complied with faithfully. To him, after seeing all the others, the agent of the young Lord came with his unjust demands. Lewis peremptorily dis- missed him from his presence, and determined to make an effort to rescue his family from this threatened injustice by a personal interview with the young Lord, who, Lewis imagined, would scarcely have the hardihood to insist before his face upon the iniquitous terms proposed by his agent.
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Accordingly he visited the castle of the young Lord. A porter announced his name. At the time the young Lord was engaged in his revels over the bottle with some of his companions of similar tastes and habits.
As soon as the name of Lewis was announced he recognized the only one of his tenants who had resisted his demands, and directed the porter to order him off. When the porter delivered his Lord's order, Lewis resolved at every hazard to see him. Accordingly he walked into the presence of the company-the porter not having the temerity to stand in his way. Flushed with wine, the whole company rose to resent the insult and expel the intruder from the room. But there was something in Lewis' manner that sobered them in a moment; and, instead of advancing, they seemed fixed to their places, and for a moment there was perfect silence, when Lewis calmly observed : " I came here with no design to insult or injure any one, but to remonstrate in person to your Lordship against threatened injustice, and thus to avert from my family ruin ; in such a cause I have not regarded ordinary forms or ceremonies, and I warn you, gentlemen, to be cautious how you deal with a desperate man." This short address, connected with the firm and intrepid tone of its delivery, apparently stupefied the company. Silence ensuing, Lewis embraced it to address himself particularly, in the following words, to the young Lord : " Your much-respected father granted me the lease-hold estate I now pos- sess. I have regularly paid my rents, and have faithfully complied with all the covenants of the lease. I have a wife and three infant children whose happiness, comfort and support depend, in a great degree, upon the enjoyment of this property, and yet I am told by your agent that I can no longer hold it without a base surrender of my rights to your rapa- city. Sir, I wish to learn from your lips whether or not you really medi- tate such injustice, such cruelty as the terms mentioned by your agent in- dicate; and I beg you before pursuing such a course to reconsider this matter coolly and dispassionately, or you will ruin me and disgrace yourself." By the time this address was closed, the young Lord seemed to have recovered partially, (in which he was greatly assisted by several heavy libations of wine,) from the effects produced by the sudden, solemn and impressive manner of his injured tenant. He began to ejaculate : " Leave me! Leave me! You rebel! You villain !" To this abuse Lewis replied calmly, as follows : "Sir, you may save yourself this useless ebullition of passion. It is extremely silly and ridiculous. I have effected the object of my visit ; I have satisfied my mind, and have nothing more to say. I shall no longer disturb you with my presence." Upon which he retired from the room, apparently unmoved by the volley of abuse that broke forth from the young Lord and his drunken comrades as soon as he had turned his back. After they had recovered from the magical effect which the calm resolution and stern countenance of Lewis pro- duced, they descanted upon what they called the insolence of his manner, and the mock defiance of his speech, with all the false views which aristo- cratic pride, excited by the fumes of wine, in a monarchial government were so well calculated to inspire. During the evening the rash purpose was formed of dispossessing Lewis by force. Accordingly, on the next day, the young Lord, without any legal authority whatever, proceeded at the head of his guests and domestics to oust Lewis by force. Lewis saw the approach of the hostile array, and conjectured the object of the dem- onstration. He had no arms but a shelalah, a weapon in possession of every Irish farmer at that period. Nor was there any one at his house but
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a brother, confined to bed by disease, his wife and three infant children; yet he resolved to resist the lawless band and closed the door. The young Lord, on reaching the house, demanded admittance, which, not being granted, the posse attacked the house, and after being foiled in several attempts to break down the door. or to effect in other ways an en- trance, one of the party introduced the muzzle of a musket through an aperture in the wall and discharged its contents-a bullet and three buck - shot-upon those within. Lewis' sick brother was mortally wounded, and one of the shot passed through his wife's hand. Lewis, who had up to this time acted on the defensive, seeing the blood stream from the hand of his wife, and his expiring brother weltering in his blood, became en- raged, furious, and, seizing his shelalah, he rushed from the cottage, deter- mined to avenge the wrong and to sell his life as dearly as possible. The first person he encountered was the young Lord, whom he despatched at a single blow, cleaving in twain his skull, and scattering his brains upon himself and the posse. The next person he met was the steward, who shared the fate of his master; rushing, then, upon the posse, stupefied at the ungovernable ardour and fury of Lewis' manner, and the death of two of their party, they had scarcely time to save themselves, as they did, by throwing away their arms and taking to flight. This awful occurrence brought the affairs of Lewis in Ireland to a crisis. Though he had violated no law, human or divine; though he had acted strictly in self-defence against lawless power and oppression, yet the occurrence took place in a monarchial government, whose policy it is to preserve a difference in the ranks of society. One of the nobility* had been slain by one of his tenants. The connexions of the young Lord were rich and powerful, those of Lewis poor and humble. With such fearful odds it was deemed rash and unwise that Lewis should, even with law and justice on his side, surrender himself to the officers of the law. It was consequently deter- mined that he should proceed, on that evening. disguised in a friend's dress, to the nearest sea-port, and take shipping for Oporto, in Portugal, where a brother of his wife was established in merchandize. Luckily he met a vessel just ready to sail from the Bay of Donegal, in which he took passage. After various adventures, for the ship was not bound for Portu- gal, in different countries he arrived at Oporto in the year 1729. Upon his arrival there, he was advised by his brother-in-law, in order to elude the vigilance of his enemies, to proceed to Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, and there to await the arrival of his family, which, he learned, was in good health, and which his brother-in-law undertook to remove to America.
Lewis, following this advice, proceeded at once to Philadelphia. In a year his family joined him, and learning from them that the most industrious efforts were being made by the friends of the young Lord to discover the country to which he had fled, he determined to penetrate deep into the Amer- ican forest. He moved then immediately from Philadelphia to Lancaster, and there spent the Winter of 1731 and 1732, and in the Summer of 1732, he removed to the place near Staunton, in the County of Augusta. Virginia, now called " Bellefonte," where he settled, brought up his family, conquered the country from the Indians, and amassed a large for- tune. At the time he settled at this place, Augusta county was not formed. The country was in the possession of the Indians, and Staunton
*The man killed by Lewis was Sir Mungo Campbell, Lord of the Manor, and hence commonly called " The Lord." He was not a Baron or peer of the realm.
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was not known. After establishing himself here. his family was a nucleus for new settlers from the East side of the Blue Ridge and Ireland, and the number had so increased by 1745. that the County of Augusta was organ- ized, when John Lewis was appointed a magistrate, and assisted in the organization."
From this narrative it appears that our early historians, among them the late Dr. Ruffner, whose MS. is quoted in Howe, have incorrectly stated that Lewis came from Williamsburg. It is not surprising that such errors should have crept into our history, which. for nearly a century, was mere tradition : and the reader will not have been surprised to learn that Spots- wood was believed to have entered the Valley by Rockfish gap until within a few years past, when the line of his march was ascertained by the publica- tion of Fontaine's journal. The mistake as to Lewis may have arisen from the fact that a number of emigrants reached America about this time in her Majesty's men-of-war Blandford, Wolf and Hector-the latter under command of Sir Yelverton Peyton, Baronet R. N., and the trans- ports accompanying them. These emigrants were for the most part Pro- testants from Salsburg and bound for Georgia. But some of them came to Virginia, in 1732, and were at Williamsburg, and thence made their way into the interior. Lewis may have been supposed to have belonged to this party.
Howe's account, p. 181, is as follows, and was written by Charles H. Lewis, late Minister Resident to Portugal :
" John Lewis was a native and citizen of Ireland, descended from a family of Huguenots, who took refuge in that country from the persecutions that followed the assassination of Henry IV of France. His rank was that of an Esquire, and he inherited a handsome estate, which he increased by industry and frugality, until he became the lessee of a contiguous property, of considerable value. He married Margaret Lynn, daughter of the Laird of Loch Lynn, who was a descendant of the chieftains of a once powerful clan in the Scottish Highlands. By this marriage he had four sons, three of them, Thomas, Andrew, and William, born in Ireland, and Charles, the child of his old age, born a few months after their settlement in their moun- tain home.
The emigration of John Lewis to Virginia was the result of one of those bloody affrays, which at that time so often occurred, to disturb the repose and destroy the happiness of Irish families. The owner of the fee out of which the leasehold of Lewis was carved, a nobleman of profligate habits and ungovernable passions, seeing the prosperity of his lessee, and repent- ing the bargain he had concluded, under pretence of entering for an alleged breach of condition, attempted, by the aid of a band of ruffians hired for his purpose, to take forcible possession of the premises. For this end, he surrounded the house with his ruffians, and called upon Lewis to evacuate the premises without delay, a demand which was instantly and indignantly refused by Lewis, though surprised with a sick brother, his wife and infant children in the house, and with no aid but such as could be afforded by a few faithful domestics. With this small force, scarce equal to one-fourth the number of his assailants, he resolved to maintain his legal rights at
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every hazard. The enraged nobleman commenced the affray by discharg- ing his fowling-piece into the house, by which the invalid brother of Lewis was killed, and Margaret herself severely wounded. Upon this, the en- raged husband and brother rushed from the house, attended by his devoted little band, and soon succeeded in dispersing the assailants, though not until the noble author of the mischief, as well as his steward, had perished by the hands of Lewis. By this time the family were surrounded by their sympathizing friends and neighbors, who, after bestowing every aid in their power, advised Lewis to fly the country, a measure rendered neces- sary by the high standing of his late antagonist, the desperate character of his surviving assailants, and the want of evidence by which he could have established the facts of the case. He therefore, after drawing up a detailed statement of the affair, which he directed to the proper authorities, em- barked on board a vessel bound for America, attended by his family and a band of about thirty of his faithful tenantry. In due time the emigrants landed on the shores of Virginia, and fixed their residence amid the till then unbroken forests of West Augusta. John Lewis' settlement was a few miles below the site of the town of Staunton, on the banks of the stream which still bears his name. It may be proper to remark here, that when the circumstances of the affray became known, after due investiga- tion, a pardon was granted to John Lewis, and patents are still extant, by which his Majesty granted to him a large portion of the fair domain of Western Virginia.
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